Thursday, April 25, 2024
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25% carbon tax increase means everything you buy costs more

by Dan McTeague

Here we are two weeks into a $50 dollar a ton Trudeau-Singh carbon tax – almost another 10 cents/litre on average for Canadians at the pumps

Dan McTeague is President of Canadians for Affordable Energy

Yes, this Trudeau-Singh increase applies only to the Prairies, Ontario and New Brunswick, but BC’s NDP government just whacked that province with its own massive carbon tax increase.

And shortly, most Canadians will soon get their next monthly round bills: electricity and natural gas and propane and heating oil.  All of these will be higher too.  

It will also show (again) in higher grocery bills (have you checked the price of a pound of butter lately?) 

And of course, it will show in the price of every other consumer good, and everything else.

Why?

Because affordable energy is the core competitive advantage of everything we do in Canadian society: the cost of everything reflects the cost of producing and transporting that thing, and the cost of producing and transporting that thing incurs energy costs. 

And ultimately, you and I have to pay for it.  No amount of token rebates addresses that – the tax grows faster than the rebate cheques. 

And the Trudeau-Singh alliance is destroying that core competitive advantage, by raising the cost of energy, that in turn raises the cost of everything else.

Despite what Justin Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh and their fellow green cultists say, energy use is not a bad thing – it is a good thing. Our very energy-intense society delivers an extraordinary quality of life precisely because it is energy-intense.  

And over time we become more efficient in how we use energy, because a competitive market drives such efficiency – that’s why we have become better and better in how we use energy all the time.

This too drives down prices.

But Trudeau and Singh want to drive prices up. They want you to pay more and more so that:

  • Businesses can’t grow their businesses, and go bankrupt
  • Investors don’t invest in Canada, but, instead go elsewhere
  • Canada, and Canadian business, becomes less competitive

For Trudeau and Singh, this is all okay, because government will step in. The future is more government control to ease you of your worries. Remember these are the people who believe budgets balance themselves.

How is your budget balancing going these days?

For millions of Canadians, paying their bills is becoming more and more of a challenge each month.

And on April fool’s day two weeks ago, a 25% carbon tax increase made it tougher again. 

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An 18 year veteran of the House of Commons, Dan McTeague is widely known in both official languages for his tireless work on energy pricing and saving Canadians money through accurate price forecasts. His Parliamentary initiatives, aimed at helping Canadians cope with affordable energy costs, led to providing Canadians heating fuel rebates on at least two occasions.

Widely sought for his extensive work and knowledge in energy pricing, Dan continues to provide valuablinsights to North American media and policy makers. He brings three decades of experience and proven efforts on behalf of consumers in both the private and public spheres. Dan is committed to improving energy affordability for Canadians and promoting the benefits we all share in having a strong and robust energy sector.